‘I don’t blame Drogba for his reaction after losing to Barcelona in 2009 – that was how we all felt. You can have one or two bad refereeing decisions, but we had four’: Chelsea legend opens up on Champions League semi-final
Chelsea were just minutes away from reaching the 2009 Champions League final - but it's the injustice throughout the game that caused controversy
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Chelsea versus Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League semi-final second leg had it all: spectacular goals, red cards and plenty of controversy.
Michael Essien scored a spectacular strike in the ninth minute of the game, but with the first leg having finished 0-0, Chelsea knew they were one Barcelona goal away from being knocked out of the Champions League and denied a spot in the final.
That heartbreak duly came, with Andres Iniesta delivering the hammer blow in stoppage time of the game, the dimunitive Spaniard smashing the ball into the top corner from 20 yards. Iniesta's goal wasn't the end of the drama, though.
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Chelsea believe they had reasons to be angry with the result, however. Despite Barcelona defender Eric Abidal being sent off in the 66th minute of the match, referee Tom Ovrebo denied Chelsea four penalties during the game. Florent Malouda, Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Ballack were all in situations in which they believed should have been awarded a spot kick, though Ovrebo waved them all away.
Goalkeeper Petr Cech played a watching brief from 80 yards away, but the sense of injustice is still palpable when speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo 15 years after the game.
"When you look back, you just watch all of the incidents in that game, there could’ve been three or four penalties for us," Cech highlights. "You see them again and think: maybe not that one, maybe not that one, but there are one or two where you shout, 'What more do you want?'
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Drogba at full time (Image credit: Getty Images)
"All of the emotions – the sadness, the anger, the frustration – all of that goes through your mind when something like that happens on the pitch. You just think, ‘What’s going on?’ We were 1-0 up and had the trust in ourselves that we were going to see the game through.
"Then, of course, at the worst possible moment, there was that moment of incredible quality from an incredible player. That’s what the Champions League semi-final is about: quality is everywhere on the pitch. He scored a brilliant goal and knocked us out. But the bitter part is that when you look back, you just think it can’t be real. The referees are human and it can happen: one bad decision, two. But we had four of those situations."
Chelsea's players all remonstrated with the decisions from Ovrebo, but Drogba did so the most vociferously. Having been substitued in the 72nd-minute of the game through injury, the Ivorian marched onto the pitch at the full time whistle to confront the referee.
The tirade earned him a yellow card, while he then looked into the TV camera after the game, shouting, "It's a disgrace". For Cech, though, Drogba was entirely justified in his feelings.
"We all remember Didier Drogba’s reaction and he got slammed for it, but what did people expect?" Cech asks. "You work hard all of your life to get into that position, then when you have a hard game like that to digest, obviously the emotions come out sometimes. I don’t blame him. I think that was how we all felt."
Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.
